Rob's day

At Beggar's Hall today – 14 on the lake today with a brisk wind blowing down the lake into the car park side. Hadn’t fished the high bank for a while so fancied a draw on that bank, so no surprise when I drew peg 12, next to Ray on 13. The lilies had now grown on these pegs so just set up a feeder rod for by the lilies and further out to the island, and a couple of pole rigs for close to the lilies and down the edge.

After a slow start finally got a bite on the feeder and landed a small carp around 3lb. Ray then had a couple – a small carp around a pound and a tench. Looking across Tony looked to be fishless on peg 16 but next to him on 17 Bill had caught a couple of decent carp. A change to the pole with dead maggots on the hook resulted in a quick bite and straight in the lilies! Next put in and managed to get the carp away from the snags – just – and landed a good double.

A bit frustrating as the next two resulted in the hook being transferred from the carp into the lilies – the fish seem to be already in them when striking. Tried a bit away from the pads but no bites. The next couple of hours was quiet – into the last 45 minutes and had packed up the pole (not a sign in the margins) and concentrated on the feeder by the pads. Had 3 more pull rounds in the last 30 minutes, one small carp about 2lb, one decent fish around 8lb and a 3lb bream. Ended the match with 31lb 2oz, so reasonably happy with that from peg 12. Ray didn’t have any more fish.

Weighed in clockwise around the lake – Tony Cruci had a small carp but didn’t weigh in – Bill had 5 carp for 38lb 1oz and top weight on the bank. Some struggled for carp on the high bank but Tony Parker managed a few for 34lb 10oz and second from peg 21 and Graham made third from peg 18 with 19lb 13oz.

On the low bank my catch was good enough for second with John Carter winning with 38lb 15oz from peg 5 which included a good double caught down the edge. Apart from Ray’s small fish, no more carp caught on the low bank with Bob Fox’s 6lb 11oz of roach giving him 3rd place on the bank.

So, a few carp feeding but difficult today for most of us to get bites, with very few carp apparently coming into the edge yet. Photo today is Tony Parker.